Coroner: Jill Meagher would still be alive today if Bayley had been arrested for breaching parole

A coroner in Australia has said that the murder of Irish woman Jill Meagher could have been prevented if the man convicted of her murder had been immediately arrested when he breached parole.

Adrian Bayley was handed a sentence of at least 35 years for the rape and murder of Ms Meagher in Melbourne on September 22, 2012.

That term was extended to 43 years after he was sentenced in May 2015 for three further rape convictions, including one attack which he carried out a few months before he murdered Ms Meagher, a Louth woman.

Bayley had been out on parole from a prison sentence for raping five women when he snatched Ms Meagher off Sydney Road in Brunswick as she was walking home after a night out with friends.

The 29-year-old's body was discovered in a shallow grave about 50km northwest of Melbourne.

At the request of her family, no inquest was held.

Coroner Ian Gray said today that he made the findings because Ms Meagher was one of three women murdered by men with violent criminal histories during a six-month period.

He said the prison and parole authorities in the Australian state of Victoria could have prevented Ms Meagher's death if Bayley had been taken into custody when he breached his parole.